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Topic: Daycare photos - where's my child? (Read 17314 times)

My DD works in a daycare and she said that if her daycare did this every day (as a voluntary thing, because they don't have to) and someone complained that their child was not in the picture, it would make them want to stop doing it!

If your child was frequently left out I'd say something, But one day??? My DD's director would probably make them start looking through the pictures and make sure each child was accounted for, and really they do have better things to do.

I've literally never heard of this being done. Must definitely be a regional thing. My children are all much older now, but I don't have any photos of our 5 children at their daycare. I don't have any mementos of that time. You must have dozens, or even hundreds. That's awesome! I would never dream of complaining about one day being missing.

As a photo junkie (I take an average of 20GB of photos each month of my son) it's still disappointing to me and I hope it doesn't become a pattern.

20 GB? Even assuming a pic is 8MB on the high end, that's over 2,500 pics a month. And you're worried about not seeing one at daycare?

That sounds about right. Both the camera and my phone have the quick capture that often takes a dozen shots at one click, so obviously there are many duplicates of the same setting. So if we're taking photos of him playing with a new toy or climbing into his tree house just taking a dozen snaps could end up being a couple of hundred photos quite easily, even if we're playing for an hour and only taking photos for 2 minutes. (And no, I don't spend all my time looking through a camera, and yes we have lots of playtime without a camera shoved in his face, and lots of quality time together! ) But yes, I am very obsessed with capturing moments of his life. And I derive a great deal of pleasure from looking through and reliving happy memories through photos. I never delete a single photo, not even those that are blurry. I save all of the photo books from the daycare into a folder on my computer. I'm thinking there's probably not a lot of point saving yesterdays though as there's no record in it that he was even there.

I tell you this because you asked the question so I'm happy to answer, but this is really a personal preference not etiquette. I mentioned my photo obsession because it seemed relevant to why having photos from his day are important to me. I do realise that this is not the norm for many people. (Before having my son it was my cats who were photographed a dozen times per day - it's certainly not just about him although he's my favourite thing to photograph so far!)

I've literally never heard of this being done. Must definitely be a regional thing. My children are all much older now, but I don't have any photos of our 5 children at their daycare. I don't have any mementos of that time. You must have dozens, or even hundreds. That's awesome! I would never dream of complaining about one day being missing.

It might be more of a recent thing rather than regional perhaps, as the technology has become easier and cheaper. I'm not sure what they use to get it into the cool format they use, but obviously they have some kind of software because it's much more detailed than just a Word document PDF'd! My intention was never to make a complaint or create drama, just to mention it so they knew that I noticed and that it was important to me. Because it is.

In all honesty, I don't think I could have put him into daycare if they weren't taking photos of him. It was a big part of my decision. (Secondary of course to more important considerations such as staff turnover, staff training, quality of the environment etc). It's not the cheapest centre but I do love it. He's only in care 3 days per week but it's nice having pictures of what he's been doing on those days. (Also great for showing my VERY anti-daycare mother.... "Look, son is doing painting, isn't that great and look how much fun he's having?").

1. birthday of grandchild #5Went to water park. Was trying hard to photograph both #4 and #5. Almost all pictures of #4 turned out really, really cute. Almost all pictures of #5 sadly did not. Dilemma. Do I show Mommy all the pictures? I didn't. I showed her a few of both and that was that.

2. grandchildren 1,2,3Similar situations. Sometimes one child just is "easier" to capture on a certain day. Sometimes I'll take pictures of all three together and one will have decided at the precise moment the shutter snaps to stick his finger in his nose, thus making the whole picture look unpleasant. Do I keep the pictures? Yes. Do I show their Mom? No.

They may have actually taken a couple of pictures with your son in them that turned out to be less than flattering. It may be that he wasn't even the ONE that made the pictures less desirable, but because of something these were not pictures the daycare chose to pass on.

One day? I'd let it go.

If they go for a week without any pictures of your child? Yes. I'd inquire.

I fear that if too many mothers complain about one day without a picture of their child, then the daycare will stop doing it altogether.

What you MIGHT do is if for example, there are one or more pictures of kids stringing beads, asking him if he strung beads that day and see what his own answer is. It may be "Yeah, Mommy!! I'm making you a bracelet but it isn't finished yet and it's a surprise!" or it may be "No, I didn't really feel like stringing beads so I got a truck and went over to another part of the room and played with that all by myself."

1. birthday of grandchild #5Went to water park. Was trying hard to photograph both #4 and #5. Almost all pictures of #4 turned out really, really cute. Almost all pictures of #5 sadly did not. Dilemma. Do I show Mommy all the pictures? I didn't. I showed her a few of both and that was that.

2. grandchildren 1,2,3Similar situations. Sometimes one child just is "easier" to capture on a certain day. Sometimes I'll take pictures of all three together and one will have decided at the precise moment the shutter snaps to stick his finger in his nose, thus making the whole picture look unpleasant. Do I keep the pictures? Yes. Do I show their Mom? No.

They may have actually taken a couple of pictures with your son in them that turned out to be less than flattering. It may be that he wasn't even the ONE that made the pictures less desirable, but because of something these were not pictures the daycare chose to pass on.

One day? I'd let it go.

If they go for a week without any pictures of your child? Yes. I'd inquire.

I fear that if too many mothers complain about one day without a picture of their child, then the daycare will stop doing it altogether.

What you MIGHT do is if for example, there are one or more pictures of kids stringing beads, asking him if he strung beads that day and see what his own answer is. It may be "Yeah, Mommy!! I'm making you a bracelet but it isn't finished yet and it's a surprise!" or it may be "No, I didn't really feel like stringing beads so I got a truck and went over to another part of the room and played with that all by myself.l"

I will be absolutely stoked when my 12 month old is capable of having these conversations with me! Might be a little while away though.